Taliban attacks on Afghan security forces in the country's north have caused ‘heavy casualties’, officials said Thursday, putting the number of soldiers killed as high as 40 in fighting that is ongoing.

‘Since we don't have the night vision (goggles), the Taliban can get close to soldiers without them noticing,’ he said.

Mohammad Hanif Rezayee, a spokesman for the 209 Shaheen Army Corps in the north, said two military posts had fallen to the Taliban, but security forces had managed to beat back an attack on a base.

In a separate incident, Afghan forces launched airstrikes on a gathering of high-ranking Taliban members in the southeastern province of Ghazni, killing 24 and wounding 17, the defence ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Mullah Amir Khan Mutaqi, who was a Taliban minister during its 1996-2001 regime, was among the injured, the defence ministry said.

A recent ceasefire between Afghan security forces and the Taliban during the Islamic holiday Eid had raised hopes that an end to hostilities in the war-weary country was possible.

Since then, however, the Taliban has returned to the battlefield, launching deadly attacks against the Afghan military across the country.

The latest attacks come as President Ashraf Ghani attends a NATO summit in Brussels where he will be hoping to get a greater commitment from members to the nearly 17-year conflict.

Currently, there are about 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan, providing the main component of the NATO mission there to support and train local forces.